Articles

This box celebrates one of the best, and most seriously underrated, musical partnerships of the postmodern era. Both John Carter and Bobby Bradford were Texans who relocated to Los Angeles, and both worked early on ...

When Ella Fitzgerald joined Verve Records in 1955, the 38-year-old singer was best known for a single hit (“A-Tisket, A-Tasket”), her bop-inspired scat singing, and a stack of mostly forgettable recordings. Her manager (and Verve-founder) ...

Henry Threadgill hasn’t fomented the kind of jazz revolution that Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, or Ornette Coleman did. Nor is he regarded as the fountainhead of a movement like pianist Muhal Richard Abrams, the founding ...

His remarkably facile fingerstyle-and-thumb six-string approach caused Eubanks to be touted in the early 80s as “the next Wes Mongtomery.” Several impressive albums over the next two decades showed promise, notably 1982’s The Guitarist and ...

Garrison Fewell is a veteran guitarist who’s worked in the Boston area for decades. He comes out of a standard modern jazz guitar approach, but his work with the Variable Density Sound Orchestra shows just ...

Except for a few unobtrusive overdubs, Silent Movies is a solo jazz guitar record that casts a quiet but powerful spell. The tempos are slow, the playing sparse, the mood somber. The “compulsory distortion, rude ...

One response to the increasingly difficult problem of marketing recorded music is the production of high-quality LPs in limited-run sets that specifically target collectors. Some of the best jazz coming out today falls into this ...

Bassist-composer-arranger-producer Marcus Miller reveals the full scope of his talents on this live outing recorded in 2008 on the French Riviera. Joined by the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic, turntablist DJ Logic, singer Raul Midon, and trumpeter Roy ...

Bird Songs, Lovano’s 22nd recording for Blue Note, is his paean to bebop icon Charlie Parker. But it’s also a tribute to the sax greats who influenced Bird, like Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young, as ...

First released in 1962, Ellington Indigos finds the maestro and his impeccable orchestra in a low-key, nocturnal mood. “Solitude” begins with Ellington’s quietly introspective solo, but when his band jumps in a huge grin will ...

Goldenote, the Italian audio firm known for its Demidoff integrated amp, Stibbert Black Pearl CD player, and Tuscany Signature cartridge, has launched the DOXY record label dedicated to a pair of ongoing reissue series. The ...

Although recorded within two weeks of each other, Chet Baker Quartet 1 and 2 are quite different records. Because pianist Dick Twardzik was calling the tunes, 1 consisted of Bob Zieff compositions that shared a ...